Robert MacLean

Steel Man: A Romance with a Robot Robert MacLean

A woman, her robot (a perfect man) and her lover (an imperfect man)
When Professor Jane agrees to "try out" a state-of-the-art robot she's expecting a mechanical device to help with the house work, not the tender too-handsome Steel Man.
She accepts the rather sinister presence of this thing-it cooks, does the dishes-until one night she has a drink too many and, well.
Deeply humiliated, she must now keep her colleagues from guessing the truth-but they like him!
Even Charles, the loser in love with her, can't help being impressed.
But when Steel Man realizes his intimacies with Jane are monitored by the entire staff at the research center
he has to take action...

"Steel Man" was originally a story in Descant.
As a stage play it had a public reading at the Lincoln Square Studio Theatre in New York, then a full production at John Houseman's Studio Theatre in New York, and a staged reading at FirstStage in Hollywood. The director said:
It went great!
The play was sensational. Everyone was eerily touched, much to my surprise. They took it as a romantic drama. I thought it was a comedy. But, of course, I immediately acknowledged the fact that I knew it was a touching drama of a human loving a machine. And people thought that Charles was slightly in love with both of them. Hey, I will never deny success. Can you view a VHS tape in Greece? I'll send you one. Anyway, congratulations. I did direct it and had a terrific cast. Talk to you as soon as I can open my eyes. Best, Dennis
(Dennis Safren was the manager and dramaturge at FirstStage, whose Board included Ed Asner, Julie Harris, Syd Field, Paul Newman and Lily Tomlin.)